Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Lynn Interviewed by Mail and Played on RTE

Ireland's most famous rogue solicitor, Michael Lynn was interviewed in last week's Mail on Sunday by Michael O'Farrell. Some of this interview was also played on Marian Finnucane's show on RTE at the weekend.

The mail doesn't have it's Irish edition online but you'll find a scanned copy of the entire interview here. Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4 - click on the images to enlarge. You'll find a link to the interview on Marian Finnucane (presented by Rachel English) here (you'll need Real Player to play it). The Lynn interview kicks in at 0:34:18. Thanks to the guys at The Property Pin for both links.

Some excerpts from the interview include:

“If you wanted to get to the key question, did I act fraudulently in terms of, and had I two mortgages, three mortgages against the same property, ah, it's true I had extensive borrowings." Michael O'Farrell asks him, "But was it fraudulent?" To which Lynn replies: "Absolutely not, we were all, including myself, we were all following the ... I was the Celtic Cub, ah, who was out of control, honestly, in hindsight, I was greedy, ah, and over-ambitious, but yes there were other parties. I ... I'm sorry for what happened to them and I believe that right now the key question for me is that if I'm sorry I have to show it by actions as opposed to just words."

Lynn continues: "The truth is I want to go back, the life that I'm leading and the pressure ... I've a wonderful wife and she's been extremely loyal to me and loyal to us as a couple. I... I'm extremely lucky. I wouldn't see any reason why I would have to go to prison and the one thing I want to make clear is I'm not going to be a scapegoat for others, absolutely not, and I'm not going to be used as an example for what was recognised as an accepted form and practice of business by bankers, lawyers, accountants and auctioneers and I'm not going to be the poster boy who ends up in prison, to my cost.